The Kinetic Theory of Gases

Abstract

I CANNOT quite agree in Mr. Bryan's remembrance of what took place in the discussion of the Thermodynamics Report at Oxford. As far as I recollect, Prof. Boltzmann's reply was not in special reference to such a point as the specific heats of gases, but was in answer to a very vigorous, if somewhat general, onslaught of Prof Fitzgerald, who simply stated that it appeared evident from the spectra of gases and other considerations, that the energy could not be equally divided among all the degrees of freedom of the coordinates, and said what he wanted to know from Prof. Boltzmann was when the theory became inapplicable, what assumptions became invalid?—why, if Dr. Watson's method of generalised coordinates were valid, the ether, the solar system and the universe generally were not subject to the Maxwell-Boltzmann law, so that the mean kinetic energy of every coordinate in the universe should be the same and so on, insisting that what he wanted to know was why the theory failed, what assumptions were invalid.